Mike Mills, Annapurna team up for 1970s drama '20th Century Women'

Writer-director Mike Mills' next film will be "20th Century Women." (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

The next film from "Beginners" writer-director Mike Mills will be "20th Century Women," a 1970s-set drama produced by Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures, the company announced Friday.

Taking place against the backdrop of punk music's arrival in suburban America, Jimmy Carter's last summer in office, and the oil and fiscal crises of the late '70s, Mills' film will tell the story of three very different women and their influence on a boy coming of age in Santa Barbara.

Casting is currently underway for the film, which is to shoot later this year in Southern California.

"The film is an ode to the women who raised me; my mom, my sisters, the girls I was in love with or looked up to at school and in the punk rock scene where I really learned about the world," Mills said in a statement.

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Mills' last film, the semi-autobiographical "Beginners," starred Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer, the latter of whom won an Oscar in 2011 for his supporting performance as an elderly widower who comes out of the closet.

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A multi-hyphenate filmmaker, artist and designer with a background in music videos, Mills made his feature directing debut with 2005's "Thumbsucker."

Annapurna's other director-driven projects in the works include Richard Linklater's baseball drama "That's What I'm Talking About" and Ana Lily Amirpour's "The Bad Batch."